


A Brother's Promise

by The_Tungsten_Druffalo



Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-10-23
Updated: 2015-10-23
Packaged: 2018-04-27 17:00:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,380
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5056597
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Tungsten_Druffalo/pseuds/The_Tungsten_Druffalo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is an AU story that begins after the Inquisitor reached Skyhold, but before travelling to the Fade or the Winter Palace. Upon finding a mysterious giant metal dwarf emblazoned with the name “Dirthavaren lethallin (DL)” inside of Fairel’s tomb, Inquisitor Bella Cadash, and the members of his Inner Circle are both shocked and suspicious to find that the giant metal dwarf interacts with Solas. Despite Solas’ firm refusal, Bella orders him to either pilot the mysterious DL into combat or leave the Inquisition. What is DL? Why does it only interact with Solas? And why was it found inside of Fairel’s tomb locked away? The closer Bella comes to answering these questions, the more danger he faces from incurring the wrath of the Dread Wolf.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Discovery

It had been two weeks since Inquisitor Bella Cadash had ordered a deeper excavation of Fairel’s tomb. He was hesitant to, but ultimately put Cullen in charge of the task because both Leliana and Josephine were handling more important matters. With Corypheas free and the rifts attacking innocents, he did not have time to wait for them, and begrudgingly entrusted Cullen. Despite their commanders lack of aptitude, at least the men were well equipped for the task Bella had thought to himself. They were armed with the type of excavation equipment that would make most Carta dwarves smile. Ever since the Inquisition had taken Griffon Keep in the Western Expanse, rare materials were flowing into the Inquisition, it was a prosperous time. Josephine managed to turn those raw materials into a small fortune, and through her Lyrium negotiations with the Carta was more than able to parley proper Dwarven digging equipment along with other useful odds and ends. Bella readied himself to hear Cullen’s report at the war table.

“Did we find anything useful Cullen”? asked Bella.

“More so we found something very odd Inquisitor. Our men have uncovered a large vault buried under the surface of Fairel’s tomb.

Bella cut him off…

“That isn’t odd Cullen, it’s actually quite common for Dwarven tombs to have all types of hidden traps and vaults inside of them to protect from looters. What I’m interested in is whether there was any treasure inside this vault.”

“That vault was not made by Dwarves Inquisitor, its Elven!”

A very skeptical, and annoyed look developed over Bella’s face. 

“That’s absurd Cullen, what would an Elven vault be doing in the middle of a dwarven tomb? And, even if the vault was elven, our only concern is whether whatever treasures were found inside can aid in the fight against Coryphaeus.

“To answer your first question Inquisitor, I couldn’t believe the reports myself. I thought my soldiers must have been mistaken, but my messenger kept insisting that the dalish in their unit recognized the vault as Elven. I thought this was worth investigating, so I asked Leliana to reassign Scott Harding from Frostback Basin to Fairel’s tomb with instructions that she should convince Professor Kenric to accompany her.

Upon hearing that Scout Harding had been reassigned, Bella’s annoyance turned to a hint of anger.

“Cullen have you gone off your lyrium? What are you and Leliana thinking reassigning Scout Harding? If Professor Kenric wants to research Fairel’s tomb instead of Ameridans journey, fine, the academic can go research whatever the hell he wants, but Scout Harding is a soldier, and she was monitoring the Jaws of Hakkon’s movements! If they were to suddenly attack Ferelden because you wanted to send one of our most, capable officers to go play archeologist with Kenric so badly then the people could suffer tremendous harm! Personnel decisions like that should go through ME, not you or Leliana.”

Cullen tried to force a frown. He was not fond of the dwarf who stood before him, in truth very few members of the inquisition were. As far as Cullen knew, only Iron Bull, Sera, and Josephine could stand to be in the same room with Bella unless duties were being delegated. Ever since Bella had taken the title of inquisitor when they first reached Skyhold he had ruled with the iron fist of a tyrant. Cullen however believed in the Inquisition, and despite Bella’s choices, his faith in the Inquisition’s mission had not buckled. If suffering through this dwarfs cold demeanor meant ridding the world of Corypheas then Cullen felt it was a fair price to pay.

“My apologies Inquisitor, it will not happen again. You should know however that the men did find a treasure inside of the vault…regarding its unique nature, Professor Kenric thought it would be best to talk to you on site. His exact words were….”The discovery that Lady Harding and I have found here might trump any in the history of Thedas, and changes everything we could have possibly imagined about both the ancient dwarves and the ancient elves, Ameridan be damned!!””

Bella’s curiosity started to pique a little bit, he remembered how single-mindedly obsessed with Ameridan Kenric had seemed to him when they first met. To hear Kenric dismiss Ameridan so easily now more than stoked his curiosity, especially considering that Kenric had been describing some type of treasure. Bella thought and started to organize his schedule in his head. Tonight was his session with his Kadan, and although The Iron Bull would understand if Bella cancelled, his trysts with Bull were the one thing that kept him from caving into all the pressure of being inquisitor. Tomorrow he was going to set out to Val Royeux to try to solve Josephine’s problems with the Du Paraquettes, but the idea of holding this treasure that Kenric was describing seemed both more rewarding and useful than restoring honor to Josephine’s family name. 

“Very well Cullen, send word by advanced Scout that tomorrow I shall depart for the Hissing Wastes.”


	2. Dinner

It had taken two weeks to travel from Skyhold to the Hissing Wastes. Bella took his usual companions of Iron Bull and Sera, and due to the nature of an Elven Vault also decided to bring Solas along. Bella was madly in love with Bull, and appreciated Sera, but he and Solas had nothing but disdain for one another. After his trip to the future with Dorian, Bella saw just how dangerous mages could be and chose to conscript them as prisoners of the inquisition, a choice which the apostate elf rather despised him for. What really set tensions off between them though was when Solas asked Bella to help save some spirit that Solas claimed to be friends with, Bella couldn’t be bothered with such nonsense, Thedas was for the living, not the dead. Bella never once waivered in that regard. When that demon boy Cole showed up at Skyhold, despite his warning about the Red Templars attacking Haven, Bella could not chase him out quickly enough. For almost all of those two weeks Bella, Bull and Sera ignored Solas, honestly everyone seemed to be happier with that arrangement. It was all business as usual when they reached some veil fire though, Solas would say “allow me”, light it, and then go back to his own little corner away from the other three.

They reached the inquisitions base camp outside the tomb of Fairel just as dusk was setting onto the Hissing Wastes. The sands were calm and still as they approached the tomb, it was hard to believe this was the same chaotic nightmare that Bella, Bull, Sera and Dorian had fought a Sandy Howler in just four months before. As Bella and his companions strolled into camp, the inquisition soldiers began to welcome them. Ten minutes later Kenric and Harding had joined Bella’s party as the camp cook began serving them all Wyvern Liver.

“This is excellent meat” Iron Bull smirked as he chewed on the liver.

“It was a very tough wyvern, bagged this one myself yesterday when I was patrolling the area” Harding smiled.

Bella, Iron Bull and Sera hooted and howled as they listened to Harding’s story, they bellowed with laughter when she relayed how she had to stab it with an arrow after the wyvern knocked her on her ass and broke her best bow. Solas was not listening to Harding’s tale, he had sat himself in the corner of the camp by the supply tent telling the others he wanted to meditate. When the wine began to run dry during Harding’s brave recitation of bringing the Wyvern back to camp, Bella offered to bring his party more drink. He stood up to go to the supply tent when he noticed Solas. Solas had a pained look on his face, one unlike Bella had ever seen before. Being so short, even when Solas was sitting down their faces met, and what looked like tears had rushed down Solas’s face. Solas looked surprised he had been caught crying, but quickly regained his composure.

“Although the winds are calm tonight, meditating in the open sand was a poor idea. I did not account for the sand finding my face.”

“Whatever you say Solas, as long as you light veilfire and fight Corypheus you can cry every night for all I care.”

Bella walked into the supply tent, grabbed some wine, and went back to where Solas was sitting.

“Kenric is about to tell us about this Elven Vault, come back to the fire with us if your done crying”.  
Solas without a word stood up and walked over to the fire, Bella followed him, wine in hand.


	3. The Giant Metal Dwarf

“Alright Professor Kenric, we’re all here and well fed now. Tell us about this treasure” said Bella. 

“I can’t begin to do it Justice Inquisitor! Lady Harding was kind enough to take me to some of the other tombs across the Hissing Wastes. They all display pre-andrastian dwarven art and artifacts consistent with what academia accepts about the ancient dwarven race, but this tomb is different. Do you remember Inquisitor when you were last at the Frostback Basin we found that temple that featured both an Andrastian shrine and a shrine dedicated to Ghil anan?”

“I remember you being an arsehole when I had to tell you who that shite was” Sera chirped. 

“Yes, I remember” groaned Bella, “Professor I appreciate you coming out to the Hissing Wastes, and I’m happy for you if you found an interesting change in the tombs artifacts, but I came here for the treasu....”

“Fen’harel!” Screamed Kenric.

“Theres a shrine to Fen’harel outside the hidden vault in addition to the traditional Dwarven artifacts. That can only mean that that the Dwarven Nobility must have worshipped Elven gods! An overlap of Elven and Dwarven culture is something that the Chantry has never seen before, to find evidence that the two most prevalent minority races in Thedas might in fact be connected is the most exciting discovery of my career.” 

“Professor...leave it to you to leave out the real reason the inquisitor is here, the giant metal dwarf.” Said Harding. 

Sera laughed, Bella and Solas sat dead still and silent. . 

“Giant metal dwarf int it? Ballocks. Its a joke, how much of that shite wine have you been drinking Harding you expect us to believe yer bullshit?

Everyone paused and for a very awkward second, nobody broke the silence. 

“Come on, its a joke yea?” Sera repeated sounding slightly less sure.

Kenric could only smile, and Harding looked like she had something she wanted to say to Sera, but couldn’t quite get it off the tip of her tongue. 

“Can we see it? Bull asked in his usual calm and collected demeanor. 

“Of Cour…….”

“I think we should leave it alone.” Solas said, interrupting Kenric in an abrupt and out of character manner. Inquisitor, Fen'Harel is thought to be a cursed god in our mythos. The very mention of his name should be considered a taboo that no elf would build here as a symbol of respect.” “I strongly suggest what happened here is that sometime after Fairel’s death, elven grave robbers found his vault and polluted it with a shrine of Fen’harel as a means of disrespect towards the Dwarven King.”

“Except the ground where the inquisition forces excavated above the vault was otherwise undisturbed”, said Harding. According to our men, the base of the tomb above the vault was uniform, with both shrines outside the vault encased in the sand. 

“I can assure you Scout Harding the dwarves would not build a statue to Fen’Harel, grave robbers must have robbed the tomb, built the shrine, and then re-buried it.

“Why would grave robbers ever put in that much extra work to a robbery to both build an additional shrine and then re-bury it?” Asked Bull. 

“A group of Grave robbers may have brought the pieces of the shrine with them, and perhaps the ceiling of the tomb caved in at some point and re-buried the shrines instead of the robbers.” 

“Except Solas that the ceiling of the tomb is perfectly in tact, according to the Chantries histories on what little we know of the ancient dwarven race they moved on from this area after the death of Fairel’s heirs. All the tombs in the hissing wastes are thought to be completely abandoned, why would anybody come and repair them?” Said Kenric. 

Solas looked directly at Bella…”we should leave now inquisitor, Fen’Harel’s presence regardless of how it wound up in the tomb is a bad omen.”

Mere superstition Solas, you can go back to the corner and meditate if accepting facts in the real world is too hard for you. Tell me more about this giant metal dwarf?

“He’s a wonder to see inquisitor. He’s about half as tall as the Colossus in the Northern part of the Wastes, but instead of being made of stone, he's solid metal, but neither Kenric or I have ever seen that type of metal before, it's harder than Dragon Bone.”

“Harder than Dragon Bone? Do you think Dagna could make a weapon out of it Scout Harding?” Bella asked. 

“If we can deconstruct it, yes.”

“Anything else I should know you two?” asked Bella as he looked over at Kenric and Harding.

“Kenric spoke up first, the giant dwarf has an inscription emblazoned across his chest, it says: Dirthavaren lethallin, which we took to be its name.”

“But thats…” Bella started

“Yes, Elven” said Kenric. 

“Solas, what does it mean?”

Solas perked his head up and looked one more time at the inquisitor. It means “A Brother’s Promise” and I will say once more, we should leave. 

“Well, unless these supposed grave robbers of yours also constructed this giant metal dwarf, that its name is inscribed in elven pokes a fairly large hole in your theory of events Solas” said Bull. 

Bella closed his eyes and thought about what he had just been told. A giant metal dwarf, material harder than dragon bone? An Elven name meaning “A brother’s promise”? Now more than ever, he was intrigued. He opened his eyes. 

“Lets go meet this DL” he said.


End file.
